Little Pierre
Anatole France
Paperback
(RareBooksClub.com, May 21, 2012)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 Excerpt: ...brigands attacked it on land. But no reliance ought to be placed on the promises of the English. I heard the same thing said later on by a man from Bressuire. These are things I heard with my own ears and saw with my own eyes. The brigands arrived in their thousands at Granville. They came in such numbers that you could see them from the promenade swarming like ants over the foreshore. The General commanding in the town marched out to meet them with the volunteers from the Manche, and the Paris gunners, who wore caps of liberty tattooed in blue on their arms, with the words 'Liberty or Death.' But the number of brigands kept on increasing; they stretched as far as the eye could see, and M. Henri, who looked like a young girl, bore himself gallantly as their commander. Then the General realized that they were too many for him. His name was Peyre. There were good and bad reports going about concerning him, as there were concerning every one who was in the public eye in those days. All the same he was a straightforward man, and commanded considerable resources. "That day, my mother being ill in bed, I went to the Town Hall with our old linen, which had been requisitioned by the authorities. The guns were rumbling and a thick smoke hung over the outlying parts of the town. Men were going about shouting, 'We are betrayed, they are coming; every man for himself.' The women were shrieking loud enough to wake the dead. Then citizen Desmaisons rushed on to the promenade wearing his plumed hat and his tricolour scarf and I saw him, quite close to me, reel like a drunken man, clutch at his breast and fall face forwards. He had had a bullet through the heart. And, despite the terror I was in, I remember thinking that dying was a pretty quick business. People were ...